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The
American Nightmare:US
Economic Elite Wages War on the American People

by David
DeGraw

20 Feb 2010

This is
the second-part of a six-part report. Part one can be viewed
here.

The
war against working people should be understood to be a real war .
Specifically in the U.S., which happens to have a highly class-conscious
business class . And they have long seen themselves as fighting a
bitter class war, except they dont want anybody else to know about
it.  Noam Chomsky

As a
record number of US citizens are struggling to get by, many of the largest
corporations are experiencing record-breaking profits, and CEOs are receivingrecord-breaking
bonuses. How could this be happening; how
did we get to this point?

The Economic
Elite have escalated their attack on US workers over the past few years;
however, this attack began to build intensity in the 1970s. In 1970, CEOs
made $25
for every $1 the average worker made. Due to technological advancements,
production and profit levels exploded from 1970 - 2000. With the lions
share of increased profits going to the CEOs, this pay ratio dramatically
rose to $90
for CEOs to $1 for the average worker.

As ridiculous
as that seems, an in-depth study in 2004 on the explosion of CEO pay revealed
that, including stock options and other benefits, CEO pay is more accurately
$500 to $1.

Paul Buchheit,
from DePaul University, revealed, From 1980 to 2006 the richest
1% of America tripled their after-tax percentage of our nations
total income, while the bottom 90% have seen their share drop over 20%.
Robert Freeman added, Between 2002 and 2006, it was even worse:
an astounding three quarters of all the economys growth was captured
by the top 1%.

Due to this,
the United States already had the highest inequality of wealth in the
industrialized world prior to the financial crisis. Since the crisis,
which has hit the average worker much harder than CEOs, the gap between
the top one percent and the remaining 99% of the US population has grown
to a
record high. The economic top one percent of the population now owns
over 70%
of all financial assets, an all-time record.

As mentioned
before, just look at the first full year of the crisis when workers lost
an average of 25 percent off their 401k. During the same time period,
the wealth of the 400 richest Americans increased by $30 billion, bringing
their total
combined wealth to $1.57 trillion, which is more than the combined
net worth of 50% of the US population. Just
to make this point clear, 400 people have more wealth than155
million people combined.

Meanwhile,
2009 was a record-breaking year for Wall Street bonuses, as firms issued
$150
billion to their executives. 100% of these bonuses are a direct result
of our tax dollars, so if we used this money to create jobs, instead of
giving it to a handful of top executives, we could have paid an annual
salary of $30,000 to 5 million people.

So
while US workers are now working more hours and have become dramatically
more productive and profitable, our pay is actually declining and all
the dramatic increases in wealth are going straight into the pockets of
the Economic Elite.

If our income
had kept pace with compensation distribution rates established in the
early 1970s, we would all be making at least three times as much as we
are currently making. How different would your life be if you were making
$120,000 a year, instead of $40,000?

So
it should come as no surprise to see that we now have the highest inequality
of wealth in the industrialized world and the highest inequality of wealth
in our nations history. The backbone of America, a hard-working
middle class that has made our country a world leader, has been devastated.

Now that
we have a better understanding of how our income has been suppressed over
the past forty years, lets take a look at how the economy has been
designed to take the limited money we receive and put it into the hands
of the Economic Elite as well.

Costs
of Living

Outside
of the workplace, in almost all our costs of living the system is now
blatantly rigged against us. Lets take a look at it, starting with
our tax system.

In total,
the average US citizen is forced to give up approximately 30% of our income
in taxes. This tax system is now strategically designed to flow straight
into the hands of the Economic Elite. A huge percentage of our tax dollars
ultimately ends up in their pockets. The past decade proves that 
whether its the Republicans or the Democrats running the government
 our tax money is not going into our community; it is going into
the pockets of the billionaires who have bought off both parties - it
is obscene.

For
an example of how this system flows to the Economic Elite, just look at
the Wall Street bailout. The real size of the bailout is estimated
to be$14
trillion- and could end
up costing trillions more than that. By now you are probably also sick
of hearing about the bailout, but stop and think about this for a moment
Do you comprehend how much $14 trillion is?

What could
be accomplished with this money is almost beyond common comprehension.

And this
is just the tip of the iceberg that has hit us. On top of the trillions
given to the Wall Street elite, we already have a record $12.3
trillion in national debt - and we now have to pay $500 billion in
interest to the Economic Elite on this debt every year, yet another way
they are milking us dry. When you add in unfunded liabilities owed, like
social security payments, we actually owe a stunning $74
trillion. That adds up to a debt of $242,000 for every man, woman
and child in America.

In 2009,
just over $1
trillion tax dollars were spent on the military. Its safe to
say that at least $350 billion of that was needlessly wasted.

When you
research our tax system you see an unprecedented level of waste and fraud
rampant throughout most expenditures. Our
tax system is a national disaster of epic proportions. It is literally
an organized criminal operation that continues to rob us in broad daylight,
with zero accountability.

Politicians
and mainstream news outlets will not tell you this, but most
every serious economist knows that due to so much theft and debt created
in the tax system, the only way to fix things, other than stopping the
theft and seizing the trillions that have been stolen, will be for the
government to cut important
social funding and drastically raise our taxes.[TVOTW Insert - These measures have
already been announced by the Conservatives to come into effect following
the general election later this year in the U.K.]Other
than the record national debt, many states
are running record deficits and barreling
toward economic disaster, raising the likelihood of higher taxes,
more government layoffs and deep cuts in services. Our nations
biggest
state economies, like California and New York, are the ones in
most trouble.

To
merely say that things will not be improving economically is to be a delusional
optimist. The truth that you will not hear: we have been hit by aneconomic
deathblowand the United States
lays in ruins.

Its
not just this criminal tax system; the theft is now built into all our
costs of living.

Trillions
more in our spending on food and fuel have been stolen due to fraudulent
stock transactions and overcharging. Just ten years ago, in 2000, American
families paid 7% of our income on food and fuel.We
now pay 20%. This drastic increase is primarily driven by fraudulent
market manipulation that drives up stock prices. Congress uncovered
this in 2006, as part of the Enron investigation. They
found that companies manipulated the oil market to create major spikes
in stock values,
but then Congress didnt do anything about it. Nothing to see here,
just move on.

One
of the reasons why foreclosure rates are so high is because the percentage
of income Americans pay on their housing has risen to 34%.

So for
these basic necessities - taxes, food, fuel, shelter and medical bills
- we have already lost 92% of our limited income. Then factor in ever-increasing
interest rates on credit cards, student loans, rising prices for cable,
internet, phone, bank fees, etc., etc., etc . We are being robbed
and gouged in all costs of living, in every aspect of our life. No wonder
bankruptcies are skyrocketing and the number of people suffering from
psychological
depression has reached an epidemic level.

The American
worker is screwed over every step of the way, and it all starts with the
explosion in the cost
of a college education. This
is one of the Economic Elites most devastating weapons.
To have any chance of succeeding in this economy, it is commonly believed
that you must attend the best college possible. With the rising costs
involved, todays students are graduating with record
levels of debt from student loans. At the same time, the unemployment
rate among recent college graduates has risen higher
than the national average, and those who do find work are making significantly
less than they expected to make. This combination of extreme debt and
reduced pay has crippled
an entire generation right from the start and has put them in a vicious
cycle of spiraling debt that they will struggle with for the rest of their
lives. The most recent college graduates are now known as a lost
generation.

The American
dream has turned into a nightmare. The
economic system is a sophisticated prison cell; the indentured servant
is now an indebted wage slave; whips and chains have evolved into debts.

There
are two ways to conquer and enslave a nation. One is by sword. The other
is by debt.
 John
Adams

[TVOTW
Insert - The reader should watch the movie - "The Internationalist"
- to further confirm the modus
operandi of the banks.]

Concealing
National Wealth

Liberty
in the concrete signifies release from the impact of particular oppressive
forces; emancipation from something once taken as a normal part of human
life but now experienced as bondage . Today, it signifies liberation
from material insecurity and from the coercions and repressions that prevent
multitudes from participation in the vast cultural resources that are
at hand.
 John Dewey

When you
take the time to research and analyze the wealth that has gone to the
economic top one percent, you begin to realize just how much we have been
robbed. Trillions upon trillions of dollars that could make the lives
of all hard-working Americans much easier have been strategically funneled
into the coffers of the Economic Elite. The denial of wealth is the key
to the Economic Elites power. An entire generation of massive wealth
creation has been strategically withheld from 99% of the US population.

The
US public doesnt have any understanding of how much wealth has been
generated and concentrated into the hands of the Economic Elite over the
past 40 years; there is no historical frame of reference. This withholding
of wealth is truly the greatest crime against humanity in the history
of civilization.

What could
be done with all the money that has been hoarded by the Economic Elite
is extraordinary!

Lets
consider what we could do with the money that has been stolen from us.
On top of what should be our average six-figure yearly income, we could
have:

* Free
health care for every American,
* A free 4 bedroom home for every American family,
* 5% tax rate for 99% of Americans,
* Drastically improved public education and free college for all,
* Significantly improved public transportation and infrastructure,

The list
goes on

This is
not some far-fetched fantasy. These are all things that Franklin
D. Roosevelt["The Economic Bill Of
Rights" - 11 Jan 1944] talked about doing in the 1940s,
long before the explosion of wealth creation in our technologically advanced
global economy. The money for all this is already there, stashed into
the claws of the Economic Elite. The denial of
wealth to the masses is the key to the Economic Elites power. Outside
of outdated and obsolete economic models and theories  and incredibly
short-sighted greed  there is no reason why all this money should
be kept in the hands of a few, at the immense suffering and expense of
the many.

If Americans
could just understand how much wealth is being withheld from us, we would
have a massive uprising and the Economic Elite would be swept away, into
the history books alongside the evil despots of the past.

For
if leisure and security were enjoyed by all alike, the great mass of human
beings who are normally stupefied by poverty would become literate and
would learn to think for themselves; and when once they had done this,
they would sooner or later realize that the privileged minority had no
function, and they would sweep it away. In the long run, a hierarchical
society was only possible on a basis of poverty and ignorance.
 George
Orwell

Now that
we have a better understanding of how the Economic Elite dominate our
lives, lets take a look at exactly who they are .

(In
accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed
without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving
the included information for research and educational purposes.)

______________________________________________

THE
FOUNDATION, INSPIRATION, EMPATHY AND SPIRIT
WITH WHICH TVOTW WAS CONCEIVED AND BUILT UPON
RESIDES WITH THE FOLLOWING EVERLASTING PRINCIPLE

- "LOVE CONQUERS ALL THINGS" -

______________________________________________

"IF
YOU WANT OTHERS TO BE HAPPY, PRACTICE COMPASSION. IF YOU WANT TO BE
HAPPY, PRACTICE COMPASSION."

- DALAI LAMA -

______________________________________________

"YOU
NEVER KNOW WHAT THE OUTCOME IS - BUT THE TRUTH IS ALWAYS THE BEST PLACE
TO START"

- JULIAN ASSANGE -

______________________________________________

-
FAMOUS QUOTE -

"Human
beings are the only creatures on earth that claim a God - and the only
living thing that behaves like it hasn't got one."